Columbia businesses picking back up as students fill the city

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

As thousands of young people are back in Columbia for class, business owners' business is picking back up, but not without risks.

The Boone County Health Department has reported large spikes in cases of COVID-19 in the past week, with the virus showing up largely in the younger population.

Of the 1,964 total confirmed cases in Boone County on Sunday, 541 of those patients are 20-24 years old. Fourteen out of the 41 new cases reported Sunday were in that age group.

The University of Missouri starts classes Monday, filling up streets and restaurants downtown and across Columbia.

Iffam Yanis of Coffee Zone in Downtown Columbia said business has noticeably started to pick back up. While he said people have been following the rules in his business, the surge of students in Columbia is concerning to him.

"There's definitely a worry," Yanis said. "It requires more work on our side to stay safe. We do what needs to be done, and educate people because they need to take this seriously."

He said because there have been more customers, his staff has been disinfecting more often, along with other amped up safety procedures.

"When you talk about college and students, you talk about going out," Yanis said. "It's really tough, I feel bad at the same time for students."

He hopes that other businesses and the student community follows the guidelines set out by the health department to protect businesses from closing down again.

"It takes everyone to get together to fight something like that," Yanis said. "It doesn't just take me, or two business or three businesses... everybody has to respect the rules."

The owner of 44 Stone Public House in South Columbia and 44 Canteen downtown, Mark Sulltrop, also said business has been picking up as students start to come back.

"Obviously the numbers are way down compared to last year, but compared to where we have been for the last couple of months it has improved," Sulltrop said.

He said he keeps an eye on the number released by the health department to see the status of COVID in the area.

"Seeing those numbers climb, which is obviously a concern," Sulltrop said. "We obviously have to do what we can."

With the age of cases going down, he said while that is concerning and he relies on that age group for employees and customers, they just have to continue to be safe.

"I think a lot of it is out of our control and we just have to be able to adjust when those things happen," Sulltrop said.

While his restaurants were able to transition to curbside pick up, it hurt his revenue and cut hours for most of his employees. He said if things were to shut down again, some businesses may have to close their doors for good.

"It could happen to me too, but obviously we just have to try to make those adjustments as best as we can," Sulltrop said.

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